Moore 12
Gregory Moore
Dr. Ted Allder
Oral Communication
16 October 2006
Discussion Question
Prompt: Can you think of a time someone you heard had what our textbook calls, on page 134, a
signal reaction to a word? If you can, write about what happened: who said what? Why? What
happened then? Did anyone learn anything important from the episode? If you can't think of a
time when someone had a signal reaction, imagine that you heard a scene when someone used a
word that caused someone else to have a signal reaction. Narrate briefly where the people were,
when, who said what, and what happened then. And what would those people have learned,
perhaps, that is important? After you give this narrative about signal reactions and the words that
cause them, explain how the people's use of what our book calls, on page 141, a semantic
reaction could have prevented the real or imagined trouble caused by poor choice of words and
reactions to them.
Mind... numbing... Must... hang on... The words slogged through my head as I tried
desperately to stay focused on what my Biology professor was saying. It wasn't that that the
subject or delivery was uninteresting, it had just been a long week compounded by many abstract
concepts. I could tell that many of my classmates were just as exhausted as I was by their 'I'mdog-tired' postures and slow response to questions. Another swig of Dr. Pepper brought life back
to my eyes long enough to register the fact that Professor Hopkins was talking about the
binomial naming scheme for living things. A classmate behind me asked a question relating to
the subject that my mind only partially registered as I set my soda down. The professor
responded to the question in a short and sweet manner;
"Yes Miranda, you for example are a homo."
Boy that comment registered immediately with the class, and before the professor could correct
himself by tagging on "sapien" we all busted out with side splitting laughter. Even Miranda saw
Discussion Question
Moore 22
the humor in the slip of the tongue comment and made it all the funnier by blurting out "Now
wait a minute!" It took more than a few seconds for the class to compose itself as we all held our
sides or covered our laughing faces in a mixture of embarrassment and amusement. The
professor handled the situation well with a smiling, off the cuff remark that got us all back on
track despite the giggles.
Though our signal reaction to the word "homo" might have been inappropriate in other
circumstances, the laughter triggered by the professor's malapropism served a good cause in this
case. Had we stopped to think about what Mr. Hopkins meant we would have missed out on a
good laugh and remained tired, worn out students. As it was, a good laugh brought us back to life
and gave us energy to try and understand the difficult concepts presented. I don't think I will ever
look at the word Homo sapien the same way ever again and I'm sure, that for years to come, my
classmates won't either.
Discussion Question